Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
Kelly is a really good lawyer because she is very involved in the details. That also means she has one friend and no romantic prospects, because that’s how this kind of character works in media. When her friend encourages her to do something “rash and stupid,” she buys an abandoned storage unit, where she finds and frees Oberon, King of the Fairies. He grants her three wishes, but the specific wording determines what will happen. She’s the perfect person to […]
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I am living in the future we only dreamed of, back in the 90s when we were hoping for stories that weren’t superhero or other pulp genres, when we envisioned comics that were more than 32 pages with staples, when we talked about comics for people other than young white men. Andi Watson (writer, here) and Simon Gane (artist) have reteamed (after the recently reissued Paris) for a story about a teenager given a wonderful summer opportunity and the bittersweet […]
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I feel like a broken record when I talk about Phoebe and Her Unicorn, because I love every book, and it always amazes me that such a long-running comic strip stays so fresh and insightful. That’s a real testament to Dana Simpson’s skills. That’s a wonderful thing, particularly at this time of year. I just read Unicorn Selfies, the fifteenth book (!) in the series. (There’s been another since then, Unicornado, that came out in October. I am behind, as […]
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Gideon Gunn, the Pagan Priest is ridiculous adventure with plenty of nostalgic appeal to those who enjoy classic British comics or Hammer horror. The concept’s in the title. Created by writer Daniel Whiston and artist Andrew Richmond, Gunn fights monsters in 18th century Bath with whatever makes sense, whether holy or pagan. This single comic, “Strange Alchemy”, has three stories. Gunn fights vampires, zombies, and a Frankenstein-style animated corpse. Even though I have little exposure to 80s British comic anthologies […]
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A dozen years ago, Abrams published Jason Shiga’s Meanwhile, a choose your own path comic about a boy in a mad scientist’s lab. I’d seen Shiga’s comics in their self-published forms, but this was bringing it to bookstores and wider distribution. Now, released earlier this year, there’s finally another volume. Adventuregame Comics: Leviathan sets the reader up as an adventurer seeking a mysterious wizard to gain a wand to defeat a sea monster. You may satisfy your quest or wind […]
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The Folio Society is a London publisher of upscale books that’s celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. (I found out about them because they put out a slipcased set of very attractive hardcovers for Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.) They aim to release beautiful collector’s editions of classics; they succeed, based on the ones I’ve seen, although their books are limited, can be tricky to find if you don’t buy them when they’re released, and expensive. But that […]
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Know a Marvel fan? Want something unusual to impress them? Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book is exactly what you need. There are six spreads, one each for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and cosmic characters, and two for the Avengers. They are full of information boxes and “interactive elements”, as the promo has it. That means doors with character profiles or mini-pop-ups with changes. Just about any character you know from the movies has a short background […]
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Instead of a new installment in the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, this year we got a related book, one that encourages kids to make their own comics through a wide variety of art and storytelling activities introduced by the continuing characters of that series. Let’s Make History! Create Your Own Comics starts in with a challenge. Actually, two. First, the reader is encouraged to draw their own splash page, before an explanation page tells them “YOU will be drawing, […]
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